


Please

by rach320



Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, DC Extended Universe, DCU, DCU (Comics), Justice League (2017)
Genre: And excited, And then I never got around to it, F/M, Female Friendship, Forgiveness, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Guilt, Hope, I started writing this after Justice League in 2017 to try to start fixing some stuff, Loss, Survivor Guilt, and I am rejuvenated, and needed to get this out before the actual justice league is released, but then the teaser trailer for snyder's justice league came out, resurrection (discussed)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26055520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rach320/pseuds/rach320
Summary: Bruce and the rest of the team think that they need to try to bring back Clark if they have any way of doing it. Diana demands that they talk to his loved ones first.Because you don't dig up someone's grave to bring him back without first getting the permission from those he left behind.
Relationships: Clark Kent/Lois Lane (mentioned)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 20





	Please

Lois stared at the people in front of her while Martha bustled about the apartment, getting their guests something to drink. While Martha, kind soul that she is, may be inclined to give the man before her a second chance, Lois was feeling less charitable. Yes, towards the end of his life, the man before her had fought alongside Clark. But she had still had to throw herself over Clark’s body in a desperate attempt to keep the man before her from killing him. Yes, he then had rescued Martha, but Lois still couldn’t forget the hatred, the anger in the man’s eyes as he had held a Kryptonite spear over her fiancé’s throat. The only reason Lois had let them into the apartment in the first place was the pleading looks on the woman’s face, begging her to listen to them, to him.

Thumbing her engagement ring, Lois reminded herself to be softer, less hardened, to try to open herself up a fraction of the way she had when she was with Clark. “What do you want?” The words came out harsher then intended but he was here, in her sanctuary, the apartment they had shared, reminding her of the night that she had lost the love of her life. The soft side of Lois had died with Clark’s last breath.

“Lois…” Martha’s voice was slightly chiding, but overall comforting, the voice of a mother. Her mother-in-law was a godsend, offering to spend time with Lois in Metropolis after the funeral to help pack up Clark’s things—neither woman wanted to admit that they just didn’t want to be alone right now.

“It’s perfectly alright, Mrs. Kent.” Bruce held up his hand. “I’m well aware that I’ve earned the animosity Lois holds towards me and no amount of guilt on my part will change that.”

With anyone else, Lois would have thought that the last part of the sentence was there to guilt her. But a quick study of Bruce’s face, the new lines it held and the regret and pain in his eyes, told her that for Bruce, the statement was a fact, not a ploy. It was that self-aware honesty that allowed her to move forward with the conversation. “Please, Bruce, Diana, tell me why you’re here.”

Diana shot Bruce a look and he sighed before speaking. When Diana had told him that before they moved forward they would have to get permission from his living relatives, he had never imagined that it would be so hard. He should have known better considering all that he knew about Lois and her reputation as a journalist. “There is a threat here on Earth. A threat larger than any I could imagine.”

“Steppenwolf.” Diana clarified. “The ender of world’s. He is after the mother boxes, power that will transform this world into the landscape of his birth world. He already has two of the boxes.”

Lois frowned, her eyebrows creasing. Turning to Diana, she spoke. “You already seem to know so much about it. Why would you need me?”

“Because the team we’ve assembled, we do not think it will be enough to stop Steppenwolf and his army.” Diana clarified. “And if Steppenwolf is able to take this planet, much worse things will happen. Years ago we managed to get Steppenwolf to retreat, but it required man, the Amazons, the Gods, and the Atlanteans to work together…”

“And you don’t think that’s possible in this world.” Lois completed Diana’s thought. “Man is better at hating and destroying anything different from them than working together for the common good.”

While the words were not directed at him, Bruce winced, fingers tightening on his coffee mug. He had been so close to tipping over the edge, to becoming the type of man he hated because of misplaced fear and anger, because he had nearly fallen into Luthor’s trap. As it was, Bruce still felt as if he was falling, felt as if he needed to redeem himself somehow. This, bringing back Clark, Bruce knew that this wasn’t his quest for redemption. But bringing together the team, trying to fight for hope in Clark’s absence, to live by the word’s the farmer’s son lived by effortlessly and encourage others to do the same, that was.

That path had just happened to lead them here. In the apartment of those he left behind, the grief in his mother’s and fiancées eyes bringing forward the lingering ghosts of Bruce’s own losses.

“I still don’t know why you need us.” Lois’ eyes shifted towards Martha as the matriarch spoke, remembering that they had had to postpone her flight as Bruce had requested both of them present. The words remained unsaid. The only person they had known who could help was currently buried six feet underground.

Diana nudged Bruce, gently, causing him to look back up from his coffee mug. He had tried to rehearse this, tried to make it sound less blunt, but he didn’t see a way around it. “Because I believe that there is a way to bring Clark back.”

Martha gasped, nearly dropping her tea if it hadn’t been for Diana’s quick reaction time. Lois bolted up so that she was standing, glaring daggers at the man before her. “I will _not_ have you experiment on him like some mad scientist. He is _not_ your monster to bring back to life.”

“It wouldn’t be like that!” Bruce sighed in frustration, running his hand through his hair. So far, this was going exactly how he thought it would: poorly. “The ship, the Kryptonian ship, it has amniotic fluid, or the Kryptonian equivalent. I believe that it could restore the damaged cells. His body is too invulnerable to decay here on Earth, it hasn’t changed—“

“Hasn’t changed since the day he sacrificed his life for the planet that never appreciated him while he was here.” Lois’ face was drawn, anguish warring with anger for dominance. “You didn’t want him to live. Now you don’t want him to die and you’re toying with our hearts, telling us that you can bring back the man we love and—“

Lois stopped mid sentence and took in a deep breath, clearly composing herself, before she stalked off and disappeared into the kitchen where the banging of cabinets could be heard. Martha sighed, eyes drifting towards the kitchen before turning back to the people before her.

“Mr. Wayne, I want my son back more than anything. And if there was the slightest chance that he could come back and be my son, I’d jump on it.” Martha sighed, feeling her years now more than ever. “But… Even if it’s possible, there’s no guarantee that he’ll be my son, my Clark.”

“I have a contingency plan in place for that.” Bruce replied. “There’s a man on our team, a man who has run the calculations. We can bring your son back and I have a contingency for if something goes wrong. I just… I need your permission. The world, they need Superman. But more importantly, they need Clark. He cared about this world, Mrs. Kent. And I’m sorry that I didn’t see it while he was alive, but I truly believe that if we’re going to win this war, we’ll need your son leading our team. We have to at least try. I don’t want to bring back Superman, I want to bring back Clark because that’s who this world needs.”

He hoped his words were impassioned, that they didn’t reek of the never-ending shame and guilt he had felt every day since he had realized the path he had let himself go down and the consequences of it. When Martha looked up at him, he realized that maybe they did, but that the mother of the person he had killed—however indirectly—was forgiving him for it. Bruce didn’t think that he deserved her forgiveness; he doubted that he ever would.

“You have my permission, Mr. Wayne.” Martha took in a shaky breath. “If you think the world needs my son then you… You can do this. Thank you, for asking.”

Bruce cracked a shaky smile, not believing what he was hearing. But then Martha spoke again, making his smile disappear faster than it appeared.

“But I’m not who you need to convince.” Martha nodded her head towards the corner Lois had disappeared around. “You need to convince her. Now, I have a flight to catch. Please, tell Lois not to worry about me. I’ll be just fine.”

Diana looked at Bruce as Martha left the room. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she stood. “Let me handle this first. When we’re ready, we’ll come back out here.”

Taking cautious steps, Diana felt herself traveling back to the year after she had lost Steve, placing herself in Lois’ shoes. After the battle with Doomsday, she had begun to open herself up again. But it was hard. Closing herself off, staying in the shadows, it had been her way of avoiding responsibility for another innocent’s death. Rationally, Diana knew that Steve would have always risked his life. That was the type of man he was and why she fell in love with him. But that didn’t stop the pain from filling her with the knowledge that he had followed her into battle.

Diana imagined that Lois felt a similar pain. Kal-El, Clark, he was the type of man who couldn’t help but help people. He would have always risked his life for the betterment of mankind, even if man did not deserve a savior as kind as him. Diana thought that Lois knew who he was and loved him for it, had always known that his death was a possibility. But that didn’t stop the pain from existing, from taking the joy out your life and surrounding you, trying to drown you as you struggled to stay afloat.

She found Lois leaning over the kitchen sink, running water masking the sound of her sobs. Wordlessly, Diana moved to turn on the sink. When Lois looked at her, the anger in her eyes at being interrupted doing little to mask her anguish, Diana said nothing, just handed her a box of tissues.

“Thanks.” The reporter mumbled, snatching a few tissues from the box and drying her eyes. “I’m sorry.” She sighed. “For my… For…”

Diana waved her apology away. “There is nothing to apologize for. You lost your love. People have done crazier things then have a short-temper and bang some cabinets after that.”

Lois smirked, as much as the action felt foreign for her, uncomfortable expressing any emotions after spending so long burying her grief, doing everything she could not to feel it. Leaning her back against the counter, she stared at the taller woman. “Sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience.”

“I’ve lost many people.” The Amazonian admitted. “Old age, illness, war… So many ways to lose people in this world.” She chuckled dryly. “Sometimes they don’t even have to die for you to lose them.”

“The world sucks.”

While not the most eloquent of statements, it caused Diana to give a soft, but genuine laugh. “It does.” She paused, thinking carefully through her next words. “I lost someone once, a long time ago. It was in war. He was a soldier. A brave, brave soldier who died fighting for the world, fighting for what he believed in.”

Diana didn’t have to look at her to know that Lois had winced at her words, the parallels hitting too close to home. “And for the longest time, I was convinced it was my fault. That I had caused his death. So I hid from the world, from everything that reminded me of him. I helped, I couldn’t not help. But… I couldn’t be what he wanted me to be. I couldn’t be a part of this world that no longer had him in it. But…”

“But you couldn’t go back to how you were before he was gone.” Lois finished knowingly. “As much as you wanted to, you couldn’t go back.”

“No, I couldn’t.” Diana agreed. “But then… I was there with Clark. I fought with him. I think… at that point in our lives, both Bruce and I would have been willing to die if it was for the right cause. Neither of us really had anything to live for at that time, just going through the motions of living. But Clark, he had _everything_ to live for.” The strong warrior felt her throat seize as tears filled her eyes. “You both had _everything_ to live for and yet… he was still able to make that sacrifice. I had not… I had not seen someone that good in a very long time.”

Lois closed her eyes, pinching her fingers against the bridge of her nose. Every word Diana spoke was all-knowing, piercing the armor she had so carefully placed around the wounds in her heart, determined not to let herself get hurt again; she frankly wasn’t sure if her heart could survive another heartbreak. Her mother’s death, her sister’s estrangement, her father’s outright refusal to acknowledge her… Clark was the only person who was able to reach her and now he was gone too. And even though Diana clearly understands her pain, understands it in a way that only has had someone make a similar sacrifice can understand, everything inside of Lois is telling her to end this conversation now because if it continues, that’s how she gets hurt.

But somehow, with some strength she didn’t know was inside her, she lets the conversation continue. “Clark was a good man.” She’s proud that she only lets a few tears slip, only hiccups once as she tries to get the words out.

“He was.” Diana nodded. “And he awakened something in me, something similar to what I think he awakened in Bruce and in… everyone. Everyone whose lives he ever touched.” At this point, Diana met Lois’ steady gaze. The woman before her was strong, a true warrior even if she never weirded a weapon. A woman with convictions and grit and passion, but a soft and gentle heart. The perfect match to the gentle savior. “Hope.” She spoke softly. “He gave us all hope again. And I knew that I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t try to bring more hope into the world like he did each and every day.”

“The house of El… His family’s house, on Krypton.” Lois explained. “His family’s symbol means hope. Clark had… Clark had lost it, towards the end of his life, his hope. People had taken advantage of him and he had… he had lost hope.”

“He found it, towards the end, I think.”

The redhead’s gaze was sharp at the brunette’s tentative words. “What do you mean?”

“I saw how he looked at you.” Diana sighed. “I was there, trying to contain that monster but I saw it. I saw him the moment he made his decision. And… there was hope in his eyes.”

There was nothing holding back the tears anymore, and all Lois could smell was the smoke of the battlefield, the roar of Doomsday, the feeling of her cold, wet clothes and the hard concrete beneath her knees. _This is my world. You are my world._ Those words haunt her dreams, her heart clenching painfully at the feeling of him leaving her fragile human arms, Lois knowing that no matter how much she tried she couldn’t stop him even if ever fiber in her body wanted to. Because they both knew, even as they had their whole lives in front of them, that he _had_ to kill Doomsday. That he _needed_ to because no one else could and because someone had to save the world.

She still wished that it didn’t have to be him. “It was his world.” She spoke softly, wiping furiously at her tears. “He was going to do everything he could to save it.”

The words laid unspoken between them, his absence a poignant reminder of just how far Clark had been willing to go to save the world.

“When Steve died… He told me that he could save the day, but that I could save the world.”

Lois reached out, grabbing Diana’s hand and squeezing it. “What is this plan, you have?”

“Come, Sister.” Diana spoke. “It’s best if Bruce and I explain it together.”

So Lois said next to Diana on the couch while Bruce sat in the armchair, listening carefully as they explained everything they knew. She asked the hard-hitting questions she was famous for, pulled no punches and never accepted an answer at face value. There was a call to Victor to explain the logic of it all. She even asked what they would do if it went wrong, how they planned to deal with a superpowered Kryptonian who didn’t have Clark’s morals. Finally, after a few rounds of questioning, Lois was out of questions.

“We won’t do it without your permission.” Bruce assured. “We won’t. I swear it on my parents’ graves.”

Lois looked down at her hands, the glint of her engagement ring the focus of her attention. All she could think about was what Clark would do. And as much as she wanted him to rest, to finally be able to rest and not be victim again to a world that didn’t deserve him, that shunned him, she knew what he would do if he had any say in it.

“Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Okay! So! I sat on this for three years and then edited it and finished writing it in an hour. Please let me know what you think! I tried to pack a lot of emotion into a short amount of text but also wanted to really focus on Bruce's guilt as well as the shared losses between Diana and Lois because I love me some Lois/Diana friendship.
> 
> Let me know what you think! Also let me know what you think of the Snyder's Cut teasers released today! I'm so friggen' hyped!


End file.
